Habitat loss  Agriculture  Pollution  Development  Transportation  War

The paving of many natural habitats throughout the world is leading to the extermination of many populations. In 1943 the Xerces Butterfly became extinct when San Francisco spread out over its sand-dune habitat. Today the Xerces Society remembers this small insects and now strives to help preserve endangered species and invertebrates.

Urbanisation is happening all around the world at an alarming rate. The graph shows how by 2025 what percentages of different places will be urbanisated. Unless the correct steps are taken to control growth, many more populations and species are going to disappear under cement and buildings of cities in the next 50 years. Urbanisation's damage tends to be concentrated in species-rich areas as plants, animals and humans are all attracted to well-watered places with moderate climates. A startling figure for habitat loss is that every year, 3 million acres are paved over or destroyed for urban development, roads, airports and water projects.

Deforestation is also part of habitat loss. Rainforests around the world are being cleared for argicultural purposes and logging. Roads are being cut through the forest so trucks have easy access to the mills. Poorer countries have sold the trees to developed countries for furniture.

Networks of roads that link urban areas have severe impact on animals both during the construction of the roads and after they are finished. Roads create barriers to the movement for animals and prevent animals from making necessary seasonal migrations. Animals are killd by cars every single day. When multitudes of Eurpean frogs, toads, and salamanders migrate to lakes and streams to breed, they cross roads in central Europe, they get squashed by the millions. This problem has been acknowledged and fences have been constructed to keep the animals off the roads. Plans were recently published to create amphibian underpasses by the Swiss Association of Civil Engineers.

Botswana is home to two of the greatest wildlife areas in Africa, the Okavango delta and the game region of Ngamiland in Northern Botswana. Many countries would treasure such areas, but Botswana has a fixation about cattle that is leading to the destruction of this wildlife heritage. Wildlife numbers are declining and is continually threatened by ongoing habitat fragmentation from the construction of fences in the Okavango region. Construction of new veterinary disease control fences intensified between 1996 and 1998, mainly in response to the outbreak of the contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia that was threatening to invade export-oriented commercial ranches to the south of the area. The fences mostly bisect huge wildlife areas which carry few or no cattle, and since construction, have caused widespread damage to wildlife populations.